A Night Under the Lanterns
by nothingtolose18
Summary: Oneshot. Rapunzel, Eugene, and their daughter Freya spend a night under the stars, in the midst of the lanterns. Rapunzel and Eugene reminisce over their first night together in this very same spot. Written for a one-word challenge on Fanfiction Writers Unite on Facebook. Word: "Stars".


****** A/N: My first story for Tangled! I love this movie so much. This was written for the 'one word' challenge for the group Fanfiction Writers Unite on Facebook. The word is 'stars'. ********I wasn't sure, at first, how I could use that word, before deciding to rewatch Tangled in case anything jumped out. From that, this fic was born :)**

The sun was just beginning to go down over the horizon when the little family made their way down to the dock, where Eugene's boat was moored. Eugene jumped into it first, and took their sleeping daughter from his wife's arms. He carefully placed her on the seat, and then extended a hand to help Rapunzel step inside.

"Freya," Rapunzel said quietly, taking her daughter into her arms as Eugene began rowing. She laid a gentle hand on her daughter's face. "Wake up, sweetheart." The little girl had had a full day of excitement, so it was no surprise that she was passed out. But Rapunzel wanted her to be awake for this.

It was Rapunzel's twenty-fifth birthday. Although for the first eighteen years of her life it was a sad day for the King and Queen, the last few had proven to be a joyful celebration for the entire kingdom. It had began with a royal breakfast at the castle, had proceeded with games and activities for the children and adults alike, and finally would culminate with the lantern lighting, as it did every year. Rapunzel knew that Freya loved watching the "pretty stars", as she called them, and did not want her to miss them. She would never not allow her daughter the experience that she had been so denied in her childhood.

As usual, the first one came from the castle, from her mother and father. Rapunzel smiled as she saw it drifting forward, knowing that the ones from their kingdom would be soon to follow. She roused her daughter again. "Freya, look! It's the lanterns!"

Freya finally opened her brown eyes and sat up abruptly when she realized where she was. "The pretty stars!" she squealed, clapping her hands excitedly.

Eugene had stopped his rowing for the moment, and they sat, breathless, three faces raised to the sky in identical awe as hundreds of lanterns made their way overhead; others skimmed along next to them, close enough for them to be grabbed. From their position in their boat, it looked as though the lights were making some majestic pilgrimage across the ocean.

Rapunzel glanced over at Eugene, and he met her eyes. With a smile, he reached over and squeezed her hand, and she knew that they were both thinking of the first time they'd sat under this beautiful display. It was memorable because it was the first time that Rapunzel had gotten to see the show from a place other than her tower window, but that wasn't the only reason. Lights hadn't been the only thing blossoming that night; Rapunzel knew that both she and Eugene had started to feel something for each other other than companionship that evening in their little boat.

"I want one!" Freya exclaimed, standing up on the seat and reaching out over the side for one of the lanterns. Both of her parents grabbed for her at once. Rapunzel managed to snag her, while Eugene grabbed one of the lanterns that was close and handed it to his daughter.

"You need to be careful, Freya!" Eugene scolded, but he still handed her the lantern, anyway. She looked at it in amazement, turning it around in her hands.

"It looks like a marshmallow!" she crowed, glancing at her mother for confirmation. "Doesn't it?"

"It kind of does," her mother said in amusement.

Freya examined the lantern for another moment before releasing it a tad wistfully, allowing it to drift off into the night with the others.

"Mommy? Daddy?" the little girl asked, spinning around in her mother's lap to look at both of them. "Can you tell me the story again?"

"What story?" Eugene asked, a twinkle in his eye. "I don't know any stories."

"_Daddy_," Freya protested, obviously accustomed to her father's tricks. "The one about you and Mommy in the boat with the stars."

"Oh, _that _story," Eugene said with a laugh. "Well, once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named Rapunzel -"

"Mommy!" Freya interrupted, settling into her mother's lap and playing with a strand of her hair. "Her name is _Mommy._"

"Okay, so Mommy wanted to see the lanterns, but Mommy ... um, Mom didn't _have _a way to see the lanterns." They were always very careful to leave out a few of the details, like how Rapunzel had been trapped in a tower for so many years.

"So then Mommy met up with Daddy, and... the end?" Eugene tried, flashing a grin at his two girls.

"No, no, tell the best part! Tell how Mommy tied you up with her long hair and beat you with a pan!"

Rapunzel choked back a giggle as Eugene sighed, and told a child-friendly version of how they had met, and consequently fallen in love.

Freya sighed contentedly when her father had finished telling the story, and she clambered from her mother's lap into her father's. The lanterns had just about stopped coming now; although a few stragglers were still making their way towards them, the majority of them had already gone by.

"I love those stars. Why don't we do them every day?" Freya demanded, plopping her thumb in her mouth and curling into her father's chest comfortably.

"You know they're only for special occasions," her mother reminded her gently. "My birthday and yours." When Freya had become old enough to realize that the lanterns were being shone for a specific reason, she had wanted to know why her Mommy's birthday was more important than hers. The King and Queen, being quite wrapped around their sweet granddaughter's little finger, had decided that they could afford to hold the lantern ceremony twice a year, rather than just once. "And they're lanterns," she reminded her daughter again. She knew that it was perhaps stupid of her, but calling them stars reminded her of Mother Gothel, and her dismissal of Rapunzel's desire to see the beautiful lights.

The last of the lanterns had now faded away, and so the real stars were shining through. Freya had shut her eyes once more now that the excitement was over, and was fast on her way to dreamland once again.

"Guess I'd better row back to shore," Eugene decided.

"Do you want me to take her?" Rapunzel asked, gesturing to their tiny, sleeping daughter. She looked so much like Rapunzel it was breathtaking, but her eyes were all her father's.

Eugene looked down at their daughter tenderly. She had stretched out quite comfortably in his lap, and he was loath to disturb her. "Nah, you can leave her there. I think I can manage to row without waking her up."

"Okay, my strong Flynn Rider," Rapunzel teased. No one called him Flynn anymore except for her, and it was only sporadically that she did so.

Eugene raised an eyebrow at her. "Flynn, is it? Okay, Blondie," he teased her back, referring to the nickname he had used for her when they first met.

"My hair's not even blonde anymore!" Rapunzel protested, but she was smiling.

Eugene stared at her for a long moment, and Rapunzel felt herself blushing under his gaze. "What, what is it? Is there something on my face?" She swiped at her mouth hastily, and Eugene laughed.

"Seven years later, and still just as beautiful as the day we met."

"Aww, Euge–"

"You're not bad looking either," he teased, flashing her a grin.

"Oh, _ha ha_," Rapunzel deadpanned, trying to look irritated, but her amusement clearly showed on her face. "You should feel lucky that you're holding Freya right now, or otherwise I would throw you overboard."

"Just try me," Eugene challenged, lifting his hands from the paddles and offering them to her. "I dare you."

In one movement, Rapunzel reached out and grabbed her daughter before Eugene knew what was coming. In the next, she reached over the side of the boat, scooped up a handful of water, and flung it into his face.

"That's it!" he declared, standing. "You're getting it." Using both hands, he splashed her, drenching her from the waist up.

"It is _so _on," Rapunzel protested, getting ready to douse him again. They carried on this way for several moments, taking care not to splash water on their daughter, who was still amazingly asleep on the seat next to her mother.

Minutes later they were both feeling slightly worn out from the fight. Eugene resumed his rowing, while Rapunzel held Freya.

"She sleeps like a log," Rapunzel remarked absently, smoothing a brown curl away from her daughter's face.

"Rapunzel?" Eugene asked suddenly, sounding so uncharacteristically serious that she whipped her head up and looked at him.

"Yes?"

"I love you. I love you so much."

Rapunzel looked at him for a moment before a smile blossomed on her face, and she moved to sit next to him. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I love you too, Eugene." She cradled her daughter and cuddled her husband, not remembering a time when she ever felt as happy and loved as she did at this very moment.


End file.
